Socceroo Internationals for 1983

Written by Jean-Michel Cazal, Thomas Esamie and Greg Stock.
Thanks to Kevin Christopher (Studs Up editor) for the use of his personal
material and John Punshon for the cross referencing of material.
For more details see credits.

This match was the first of a two-legged series
with the old enemy New Zealand. Before this game both Australia and New
Zealand agreed to start a tradition of playing each other on a home and
away basis at the beginning of each year. This tradition lasted only a
year but the legend of the Trans-Tasman trophy was born. This was a
friendly match.

Australia played host to England in a three
match series. Coach Les Scheinflug elected to go with the Young Socceroos
to Mexico leaving the Socceroos to Frank Arok. This was to be the first
match for Frank Arok as national coach with his rein continuing until
1990. This was a friendly match.

In November and December of 1983 Australia was
invited to Singapore to participate in the prestigous Merlion Cup.
Competing against a lot of other Asian countries, Australia was looking
forward to showing its wares on the Asian stage. Les Scheinflug resumed
the coaching reins for this tour. Their first match was against China.
This was a friendly match.

Australias second Merlion Cup match was aginst
the Singapore B side, but given the fact that opposition was a second
string national side I have placed that game in the B archive. After
beating the Singapore B side they needed a win against the Thai national
side to secure a semi-final appearance. This was an friendly match.

Australia qualified for the final of the Merlion
Cup and were drawn against the host nation Singapore. After a torrid game,
it was Australia who finally emerged victorious winning the
Merlion Cup once more. This was a friendly match.